Self Blog #3

After the beginning process of trying to piece my videos together, I've started to notice a few odd things here and there. Mostly technically issues I suppose with the Second Life itself and the whole editing process. Things I need to keep in mind is the way the video comes out when I render it, seems the file can't be too small or big or else the pixels will become annoyingly distorted. Should try voice over instead of type setting the words, rolling them on the screen is not good either, hard to read. Second Life seems to lag when I capture it though it might be the program, but Camtasia is holding up pretty well. Adding in interviews with people and in Second Life is becoming too long so I have to edit a few things out of the conversations. I should get in touch with some more faculty members of schools and students outside of Purchase College, although asking around in other campuses might work, would be a bit interesting to record at least. Other things to note might be how to focus the documentary into the main point which is the use of SL as an educational tool. I tend to get distracted when in SL in little interesting things, though maybe I should incorporate that too hm...Need to keep in touch with Jason Pine and Davide in case I need some extra info on certain things within SL. Start the process of writing out the paper and see if there is any more academic material on the study of education and SL.

The relationship between gaming as play and gaming as work

Gaming has always been apart of the action of play, games are essentially for a person's amusement and pleasure. Interactive games now include the players so they feel a connection to the game itself; players can learn and take pleasure in playing the game. While some players enjoy going through the game at a leisurely pace, many others turn to instrumental gaming which is more of like power play. The player would go through the game as quick as possible trying to finish their own goals and not the games. To achieve this they would use any method possible, sometimes going as far as setting up more than one console to play them all at the same time. As in the case of WoW, some players have more than 2 computers set up with a different account so they can level as soon as possible, pleasure soon turns into work. Corporations trying to test a game would bring players in to test the game before it goes to the public and they would gather as much data about player's reaction to the game, very much like WoW's Lich King beta testing before the game was introduced.

WoW in-game economy

There is a massive banking and auction system in the game where players can auction off items for a higher price and profit. They use silver and gold to define the amount you have and depending on whether or not you're in a guild, you could pool in your money to buy things for the guild. I think one of the biggest concerns about the gold in the game is that it reaches into the real world, like Chinese gold farmers. It works exactly like Wall Street trading, where the prices of items in the auction fluctuate and the cost depends on the availability. Essentially a player could earn a large amount of gold if he follows the patterns for certain items and sell them accordingly, very much like auctions in real life, a smart deal could make you millions.

Identity in WoW

In a game like WoW, the first things we encounter is the subject of race; what race do I want to be, what race do you want other people to see, what race best suits yourself. Then comes the option of gender, technically we're only allowed female and male even though in real life that is not always the case. As we choose the race and gender that we think is the best, we come into class, and hopefully we pick one that will again best suit your race and what you want to do in the game. All this comes together to form an extension of your self in another world. This time we can choose what to be and what to do in the game, within rules and regulations of course, but still mainly; we get the option of choosing instead of sticking with what we were born with. Even though ideally your avatar is in the game, it is still a part of you, the virtual world is not far from the real, and we bring our already predisposed ideals into the game along with the other 11 million people playing. Racism, sexism, classism and gender biases can all still be seen in the game, especially when you interact with others just like in the real world.

Self Blog #2

I signed up for the COIL conference, which is the Collaborative Online International Learning, whose goals are to promote a more online interactive learning program and relationship with SUNY colleges and international schools. They had two sections that I was really interested in and both were presented by Prof. Pine. The first one was a large meeting with another prof. in Second Life who teaches in France but also teaches other courses from another school. The presentation was more about how fellow faculty members could join the online community of Second Life and build a curriculum through it to teach their classes in whatever subject they were teaching. One of the interesting things about the conference was the part where prof. Pine talked about all these interesting locations they send the students to, like a life size built community in a small French town, or a place where simulations can happen to the avatar like a random hurricane. It was places that were made to challenge the ideas of physicality in a virtual world, something you cant really feel or smell but can see and hear just the same. As a student of course I would love to be in a class that is online and Second Life is definitely a fun place to wander around in, though it seems not many other students like it. Could be the difference between the work and play factor though I can see why people wouldn't really understand a place like Second Life in terms of it being a classroom, that or really its just hard to understand when there aren't any goals to accomplish. I suppose objectively we see it as a game so we approach it in that sense but what we really figure out is that its a second world thats just as complicated and intricate as the first.
I also went to the afternoon workshop that Jason Pine had set up and this was a bit more of a tutorial kind of lecture. It was generally the basics of how to set up in Second Life, whats the best thing to do if you want to set up a classroom space, and a tour of some specific areas that are already set up by other schools around the world. Overall it was a very interesting conference and I'm definitely going to use it in my senior project along with some interviews and a few connections i've made with other faculty members.

Self Blog #1

After trying to see how I could kind of mesh together both real life and Second life, I wanted to go with a more hands on approach. An idea i've been playing with is creating sort of an orientation or tour guide using both real life images shot of purchase campus and scenes shot in Second Life. Thing with that is i've walked into a couple of brick walls, mostly the complexity of second life itself was really difficult. I'm doing this for my senior project so it will take a little more time in the making but I have shot a few scenes and done a few things in second life to see how well they go along.
A few problems I had with shooting on campus have been few except for the way I wanted to shoot and if it was possible to actually do it in Second Life. That limited my options a little but it can be fixed and shooting scenes in real life shouldn't be that hard as long as the scenery textually still looks the same. As for Second life, difficulties with this virtual world has been a bit hard to get around. Things like movement of the avatar, or camera viewing options, i'm still trying to see if theres a tutorial around that can teach me how to get around it. Other things like limited actualy scenes to shoot from since the island is relatively small and the buildings and other prims are few.
I've talked to Bill Junor since he heads CTS and basically runs the Purchase Island to see if he liked my idea or if he can help me a bit in terms of landscaping or other ways I can go about doing my project. He suggested a few ideas and tried to help as much as possible, though I think after talking with Davide since he does most of the changes on the island itself would be better. Davide is currently working on a map layout of the campus itself and I'm going to start helping him on that because I think I could use some shots of it after it's finished, it has a great aerial view shot that I can do of the campus. Bill has suggested seeing if he could use it more as an interactive kind of map program for the Purchase website online since theres so few images of the college right now.
Thats all for now I guess, I'm working on a few images right now of both real live shots of the library and the clock tower to just see how it pans out and it looks pretty interesting though I forgot to realize the clocks have different times on them..Ah it can be fixed later on.

Revised Proposal

The use of Second Life by colleges around the world creates a virtual campus usually on an island and is an ideal medium to reach out to a generation and society that is surrounded by computers and online play. The virtual world allows players to have a fantasy like environment where you can play as whoever you want and build whatever you choose, perfect for students who can join and learn more about a college that they no longer have to travel to see. The world allow schools to project the image they desire for students to be in a familiar environment like at home and still be able to visit the college and see and learn about it before they attend.

What I want to research is the impacts of programs like Second Life on college campuses and how it can help with students. The topic of my study of virtual worlds like Second Life and its impacts in an educational field like schools and colleges can further help students who can participate in a virtual setting within an educational sphere created by the school. The recent use of Second Life by colleges around the world has brought up the idea of using it as a platform to teach and educate students who can easily associate and immerse themselves in online gaming. It provides a greater educational opportunity for students on a virtual campus that is both a learning environment and promotes educational benefits.

Using Purchase College’s existing virtual island in Second Life itself, I will look at the current outline and layout of the school and try to help add to it to better help create a more interactive and larger game play for students. Using tools from images recorded from Second Life, I plan to create a video with images of real life and a virtual Purchase College Campus to introduce an online tour guide of the campus itself which can be used later on to help students who want to take a look at the college without having to come here.

Splicing real life images and the views we can see in second life can help students or incoming students better associate and learn more about the college itself. The campus itself can be viewed in either real life or participating in Second Life and become a resident who can roam around and still be able to understand the layout and where to find help about anything in the school. The free roaming and the lack of set goals in this virtual world gives the ideal environment for anyone to learn easily and at their own pace using their own imagination to immerse themselves in a world based on reality but without restrictions.


Bibliography:
-Balkin, Jack M., and Beth Simone Noveck, eds. The State of Play : Law, Games, and Virtual Worlds. New York: New York UP, 2006.
-Bans, Lauren. "Same Shit, Different World." Bitch - Feminist Response to Pop Culture Spring 2008: 56-60.
-Boellstorff, Tom. Coming of Age in Second Life : An Anthropologist Explores the Virtually Human. New York: Princeton UP, 2008.
-David, Antonacci M., and Nellie Modaress. "Second Life: The Educational Possibilities of a Massively Multiplayer Virtual World (MMVW)." 28 Sept. 2008 .
-"SLED® Blog." Linden Research. .
-Wright, Theodore. "Second Life as a Virtual Learning Environment." SecondLife Education. 17 Sept. 2008. 28 Sept. 2008.
-Antonacci, Dave, Salli DiBartolo, Nancy Edwards, Karen Fritch, Barbara McMullen, and Rick Murch-Shafer. "The Power of Virtual Worlds." Angel Learning White Paper July 2008: 1-8.